Thursday, January 27, 2011

8 is great.

Simone is now eight months old and Cullen is 34 months old.  Simone is using her fingers to bring puffs and cheerios to her mouth - and she loves them.  She is also starting to scoot backwards.  We realize that her "immobile" phase will soon be coming to an end.  It's another sign that she won't be our baby forever. Cullen is truly a little man with thoughts and ideas all his own.  When we were on our way to the coffee shop, Dirk asked Cullen what kind of doughnut he wanted and Cullen replied "a circle doughnut".  When I was putting him to bed last night, he stared at me with a puzzled look and said "why did you take down the Christmas tree?".   And on New Years Eve, Tracy asked Cullen what color sprinkles he wanted on his cupcake and he replied "lots".  Fair enough.

Cullen and Simone are really beginning to interact with one another.  In fact, we often find them playing with the same toys.  However, big brother does get a little territorial and sometimes informs us that "Simone isn't playing with a baby toy - tell her to play with the baby toys."   Next lesson:  sharing.

Monday, January 17, 2011

January Fun



First off my apologies to you the loyal readers of Team Swanson, it's been too long and you deserve better than that.  Things are well around the Swanson household.  Simone was struck with a nasty little stomach bug last week, but she has cleaned that out and is now squawking happily again.  Simone is as content as a baby can be.  The only time she seems to get frazzled is when she is hungry.  Other than that, she usually has a huge smile on her face and is fine just sitting around and sticking whatever object is nearest her in her mouth.  She does seem to be getting closer to crawling, as she recently as started getting on her hands and knees and sliding backwards. 

Cullen has been as entertaining as ever.  Each morning Lisa and I wait in anticipation for the beginning of "Little Einsteins", because as soon as the opening credits start rolling Cullen jumps up from where ever he is sitting and sings dances to the opening song.  It is hilarious and a great start to my day.  Cullen is also quite creative, each day when we pick him up from daycare he has to show us the artwork that he has done that day.  However, he saves most of his creative juices for thinking up ways to avoid going to bed.   Each night, after we have finished books and turned out his lights, we will hear the click of his door knob.  I'll look around the corner and see this two year old walking on his toes, "neaking" as he likes to refer to it.  I'll ask him what is up and he will respond that "he needs a nack" or "I can't find Mickey."  He has figured out that these reponses will end up with him going straight back to bed.  This is where his ingenious little mind takes off.  He now "neaks" out and informs me that he has to go potty.  Damnit!  He has figured out I can't say no to that.  So off we go to the bathroom where he sits and talks for 10 minutes, until finally two drops of pee fall into his little potty bowl.  Gotta love it. 

As you can see in the pictures, Cullen had his first ski lesson.   He loved it.